So what have I been up to these past six weeks?
MOVING
I finally moved into my apartment about two weeks ago and it's great! My roommate and I live on the third (and top) floor of a big apartment complex just a few minutes away from the University of Guam campus. A lot of the other Marine Lab students live here too. I've got my own bathroom, a ton of closet space, and an oven. What more could a girl need? (A big fridge, that's what. I'm working on convincing the apartment manager to get me a bigger one because, as I keep telling her, I really like to eat.)
Are there problems with the apartment? Of course. My blinds don't go down, our oven has no racks (although I recently stole some rusty old ones from the trash, I'm not proud of that but I really needed to bake stuff!), our stove is missing a drip pan, my showerhead was disgusting and my shower had used soap left in it (why???), and the floor... let's just say that I'm incredibly glad I have a steam mop because the tile floors were caked in a thick layer of what I sincerely hope was concrete dust. It wouldn't budge until it got hot, and once it cooled and dried it was rock-hard again... I don't want to know what it is. There is also a slight wasp infestation, but they're pretty docile and a lot better than cockroaches.
So overall, almost everything works and is good. The place is pretty cheap ($725/month, split two ways) so I'm happy!
A few photos of my room:
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| My room! It's pretty big. There's no good spot for the bed though. |
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| I have a LOT of closet space. Good thing, too, because I have lots of clothes... that I mostly never wear. |
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| Close up of the decorated bit! Take a good luck 'cuz this is the cleanest it'll ever be. |
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| My tea shrine. |
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| This clock used to be boring white, but I used washi tape to make it prettier! I knew I'd use that washi tape someday... |
We've mostly got everything we need for the apartment, but we're still missing a few things--namely furniture. We were lucky to get a kitchen table and chairs from a professor and a few small items from a former student, and we got cheap beds from a local place selling used hotel stuff, but that's all we have. No couches, TVs, nada. But who cares about furniture? We've got beds and a fully-stocked kitchen, and that's all we need. I was lucky to get to buy a lot of the basics on the Navy base, where everything is waaaaay cheaper. Our kitchen color theme is orange. I love it!
As for my room... well, I have a lot of stuff. (My mom would probably use a less kind word that also starts with an 's' but this is a family-friendly blog, remember?) I'm trying to keep the clutter down by using organizational tools. I'm also trying to cut costs by doing some pinterest-style decorating. I've been getting very crafty these past few days!
GARDENING
Everybody loves to create something, right? Well I prefer to create things that I can eat. Despite living on the third floor, I am determined to grow some vegetables. We have a long balcony/walkway outside our apartment and I have already started planting. Pots are terribly expensive for what you're getting, so I've started to get creative with my potting options. I've been spray painting and drilling holes plastic containers, some of which I'm going to mount on the balcony.
I've already planted zucchini and basil, and I've started seeds for squash, jalapenos, and snow peas. I'm also planning to try watermelon, cantaloupe, cucumber, and bell peppers. I'm hoping that if I share with my neighbors, they'll let me expand my apartment garden in front of their place too. Fortunately my neighbors are all super nice--my good luck never seems to run out--so hopefully I'll be swimming in fresh, fantastic, free veggies very soon!
BUYING A CAR
I bought a car! My new (used) car is a 2003 Toyota Highlander, and I've named her Irma. (If you don't understand why I named her Irma, then you're probably the type of person who doesn't name their car, am I right?) It's been about a month since I got her and so far no serious problems, which is good. I did have a brief problem last week with a window falling out of the track, but fortunately I got some help fixing it at the lab. (Because while I know how to do some simple car repairs, I lack the brute strength to actually do the job. Sometimes it actually does suck to be so small!)
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| Say hi to Irma! |
I got a super excellent deal on her, too. She's got 85,000 miles on her and her Kelley Blue Book value is almost $9000, but I paid just $5000. Yay!
Why did I get such a crazy good deal? Well, it's either very good luck or very bad luck, depending on how you want to see it. I'm going to say good luck. It's a pretty long story and a few people have already heard it so those people can just skip the next section. But if this is new, read the whole story. I promise it's worth it.
ALMOST KILLING A DUDE
To start off, everybody is fine, although I think the car salesman almost had a heart attack.
So here's the story: after some very ineffective attempts to get a car on Craigslist (everything was a scam!) I went to a used car dealership to see if they had any cheap cars. I was looking for something under $5000 and cars are really expensive here, often going for twice as much as they would on the mainland. (Jeeps and trucks are SUPER expensive--I've seen ones older than me selling for $6k-8k.) I honestly didn't expect them to have anything in my price range because most of their cars were nice, new-looking ones $12k and over.
But lucky me, the dealership had two cars in my price range: a 2006 Toyota Camry, and a manual transmission 2005 Hyundai Santa Fe (like a small SUV). The Camry was in really bad shape--it had broken mirrors, the driver window didn't work, no aircon, smelled funky, was missing some door handles, and had been in an accident--and those were just the problems I could see.
The Santa Fe looked great though! The interior was very clean, the exterior had no rust, and the dealer told me that it was mechanically sound, but had just one problem: the hood hinges (the part where the hood connects to the car body) had rusted out, so they'd need to be replaced, but it wasn't urgent because the dealership people had been driving it with no problems. I was with two other girls (other grad students at UoG) who were also looking but since I was the only one who could drive a stick shift, they weren't interested. I told the dealer I'd come back the next day to test drive it.
By the way, I know car dealers are often really shady dudes. But actually, all the used car dealership salesmen I spoke to here seemed like nice, honest people who straight-up told me when something was a piece of crap. People on Guam are really nice, it's a lot like the midwest in that regard.
Anyway, I came back to test drive it and the salesman had pulled down a few more cars for me to test drive that weren't on the lot before. One was another small SUV, newer but in worse condition. The other car was a 2003 Toyota Highlander, another small SUV. I took those two out first. The newer SUV had some obvious transmission issues, so that was a definite no. The Highlander had a price sticker of almost $13K, because I think used car dealers (even nice ones) are always trying to rope you into something more expensive, but I test drove it anyway. It was really nice but out of my price range.
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| The white Santa Fe I wanted. Looks pretty nice, right? |
Then I took out the white Santa Fe I had come for. We were doing about 40mph (I wanted to make sure it could go!) and about half a mile down the street when the hood flew off. It looked like a sheet of paper flying away in the wind! It didn't shake or lift up at all before that, but then it was just gone! I looked behind me and saw that all the traffic on one side of the road had stopped but I was driving a stick shift so I had to pay attention. We stopped and turned around, but the piece was already gone. I assumed somebody had taken it.
We were both shaken--because a piece of metal that size flying around could easily kill somebody--and drove back to the dealership. The dealer called a coworker to go find the piece and make sure nobody was hurt by it. It turned out that it HAD hit a car, and the guy was shaken up because if he hadn't braked it would have gone right through his windshield and probably killed him. The hood weighed about 70 pounds and flew off at 40mph--that's a pretty scary projectile.
But because this is Guam, the guy was somebody they knew! Apparently it was their pest control guy. The police came, but he agreed not to press charges and the dealership is gonna fix his car up nice.
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| Sans hood. |
As for me? I had to wait until after they were done dealing with the police (mainly I spent that time Snapchatting, haha!) but when he came back he said he'd sell me the Highlander (previously $13K) for $5K. AMAZING. Just to give you an idea of how great a deal that is, the Kelly Blue Book value on that exact car is $8600--and that price included all the government fees. I think they lost money on that car, presumably in exchange for me not suing or telling people they were terrible.
Actually, I've been really happy with the dealership and I'd definitely recommend them to anyone looking for a used car. I got very lucky!
SCHOOL
School is going well! I'm taking four classes right now: cellular biology, marine botany, a scientific writing/literature course, and a one-credit seminar about statistical analysis. None of my classes are easy but marine botany is significantly more difficult for me than the others--mostly because I know next to nothing about botany. The last time I talked about plants was AP Biology in my junior year of high school, which was about nine years ago now. (Holy crap, that makes me feel old!)
Anyway, marine botany is kicking my butt. The focus of the class is algae, and my professor is a true algae aficionado. I wish I knew as much about anything as he knows about algae. Believe it or not, algae is actually pretty cool! It's not just pond scum and that slimy stuff at the bottom of lakes. Some of it is quite pretty, both in the water and under the microscope.
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| Algal reproductive structures! |
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| Come on, that's pretty neat, right? |
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| Look at that banding! |
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| Neato! |
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| It has spikes and looks like a claw! |
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| I love microscopes. Everything looks cooler under them. |
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| This little guy was living in our algae! Cute, ain't he? |
But other than marine botany, everything is going smoothly. I just took my first exam since undergrad and I think it went pretty well, so things are looking good! Spring break is coming up soon and I plan to spend it exploring Guam, since I haven't been doing nearly enough exploring lately.
WORK
I have a job! I just started this week and I'm very excited because it sounds like I'll be doing a lot of diving and building things--two of my favorite activities!
My job is being a student assistant on a research project on stony corals. I went shopping for new dive gear (which sadly, I don't get to keep) a few days ago and I spent some time (okay, like 3 hours) at Home Depot today looking for materials to build sediment traps. Honestly, Home Depot is one of my favorite places on Guam. Just being inside makes me feel productive and self-sufficient.
BECOMING A GUAMANIAN
Guess who's got a Guam driver's license? I do! It was a pain in the butt to get and looks like a middle school ID card. The laminate was placed wrong and is already peeling off. To be honest, I miss carrying around my Michigan license, because it was a very pretty piece of plastic.
WEDDING
A few weeks ago I went home for a wedding! I was a bridesmaid and the wedding was wonderful. I also got to see most of my family, which was really nice because I probably won't see them again for quite a while.
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| Me and the beautiful bride! |
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| I look good, right? That's because there's approximately two inches of makeup caked onto my face. Makeup is magic. |
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| The bridal party! What a bunch of lovely ladies! |
RUNNING
Running on Guam requires waking up before the sun. It's just so dang hot and humid! Daytime running is a definite no-no, but even after the sun goes down it's still pretty hot. The only good, enjoyable time to run is in the early morning. Like, 6am early. I've been managing to wake up a few times a week to run, and it's great because I feel like I've been super-productive by 8am!
There are a ton of 5k races here on Guam, and they're super cheap. Most races back in Michigan were around $25, but here they're generally under $10. I've done two races so far and I've signed up for two more. One of the races was today!
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| Sweaty post-race selfie. |
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| Team Marine Lab! (Not a real team... yet. I'm working on it.) |
And that's pretty much everything I've been up to since the end of January! Now that I'm less busy putting together my apartment, I should have more time to take nice photos and go to the beach. (You'll notice that "going to the beach" was absent from my list of activities, because I haven't been to the beach in the past six weeks! Noooo!)
Till next time!
-Ashton
